‘Anatomy,’ ‘Practice’ crossover fuels ABC Thursday

'CSI,' 'Mentalist' most watched of the night

Crossover episodes of “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Private Practice” gave ABC a solid win Thursday, though CBS’ new episodes of “CSI” and “The Mentalist” were the most-watched shows.

In an evening of all new programming — except for an 8 o’clock repeat of “The Mentalist,” which performed double duty for the night — Alphabet saw strong carryover between “Grey’s” (4.7 rating/12 share in the 18-49 demo, 12.7 million viewers) and “Private Practice” (4.2/12, 11 million; best since the October season premiere) as the two skeins had an interlocking storyline.

“Grey’s” defeated “CSI” (3.3/9, 15.3 million), though the latter delivered more eyeballs. Also at the 9 p.m. hour, Fox’s “Fringe” (2.6/7, 5 million) saw a slight uptick from its last original episode on Dec. 10 and NBC’s double-shot of “30 Rock” scored a 2.3/6 for each half-hour episode.

At 10, a new episode of “The Mentalist” (3.4//9, 15.2 million) didn’t fare as well as “Private Practice” but did crush the Peacock’s “The Jay Leno Show” (1.3/4, 4.4 million), which doesn’t see to be getting a bump in the wake of NBC latenight’s brouhaha. Both “The Tonight Show With Conan O’Brien” and “Late Show With David Letterman” have seen significant ratings increases.

NBC, however, did win the 8 o’clock hour. Freshman sitcom “Community” (2.3/7, 5.4 million) and “Parks & Recreation” (2.1/6, 4.5 million) both had their best demos since Nov. 5 and defeated a rerun of “The Mentalist” (1.9/6, 9.6 million). Alphabet’s news special “Earthquake Haiti: The Race to Save a Country.” (1.4/4, 5.4 million) was a last-minute replacement scheduling replacement in lieu of a “Grey’s” repeat.